with Roland Batten

THE area's anglers swept the board in two open matches fished over the last few days on the Avon and Nadder, bringing the competitive season on the rivers in the Salisbury area to a close for this season.

The first of the matches was on the Avon at Britford and competitors caught some nice dace as well as grayling, chub and a few roach.

Sean Gumbleton took the honours for Salisbury taking 11 chub for 21lb. Malc Pepper-ill was runner-up for Salisbury with a bag of 20lb 5oz which included several dace.

On Sunday both the Avon and Nadder were used for the annual pairs match and Salisbury took both individual honours as well as winning the top two pairs places.

The Goodfellows - Ian and Lee - were the winning pair amassing a total of 29 points out of 30 closely followed by Sean Gumbleton and Dave George with 28 points.

Individual winner on the day was Ian Goodfellow with a mixed bag of dace and chub for 27lb 5oz. Andy West, from Test Valley, was the only visitor to get among the winners with his runner-up bag of 14lb 10oz.

Tisbury anglers have rounded off their current season's match programme at Wardour Lake with the annual Fred Wall Shield contest.

Graham Houghton picked up the top weight of 13lb 13oz to take the shield home. Tony Jones was second with 7lb 2oz and Freddie Stark was third with 6lb 15oz.

A syndicate stretch of the Avon at Burgate came up with another massive bream last week with the capture of one of 9lb - the second 9lb bream to come from the stretch this season.

The same stretch has also yielded roach to 2lb 13oz and chub to 5lb 7oz in the last few weeks.

Amesbury angler Nigel Gentle has taken the biggest pike of the week, a 22-pounder which grabbed his legered mackerel while he was fishing Bishops Lake at Waldens Farm Fishery.

Plenty of pike from both Bishops Lake and Abbots Lake while the latter also produced the week's best carp, a ghost taken on pellet which tipped the scales to 16lb 8oz for its captor, Wayne Black.

The last few days have also seen roach appearing in catches from Abbots with some reaching 1lb all being tempted by corn and maggot.

David Long fished Abbots and took a 40lb bag which included a brace of chub weighing 3lb 6oz and 4lb 4oz.

Tench have started to appear in catches from Monks Lake as well as crucian carp and Clint Walker was happy to take a crucian of 2lb 7oz.

His bag also included tench, rudd, roach and skimmers.

Popes lake has been giving good mixed bags with carp to 8lb, some tench and skimmers together with chub, roach and rudd while Deacons Lake is producing bags of around 25lb a sitting.

Three evenings have been set aside over the next few weeks for youngsters wishing to learn the art of fishing.

John Slader, from Harnham Kingfisher Club, is holding another of his popular three-part series on angling, conservation, safety, tackle tips and other useful information aimed at young anglers aged between ten and 16.

There is a change of venue for this series, which starts on March 19, with the second session on March 26 and the final evening on April 2, all at Witherington Farm Fishery near Alderbury instead of Wyvern College.

Each session runs from 6pm until 8pm and to book places, ring John on 01794 884736.